As lightweight electrical energy storage batteries for transportation, personal devices, powered hand tools, and appliances become more plentiful, the demand for metallic lithium compounds becomes more intense. The resulting techniques to recover and purify lithium from lithium-containing materials allow for either recovery or extraction of the lithium content which can then be processed into a final form suitable for end use. Examples of such lithium sources include lithium containing ores solubilized in appropriate solvents, recovered electrolytes from lithium batteries, lithium containing organic streams among others. Lithium is particularly useful for lightweight batteries because of its very low equivalent weight of 6.941 and because of its small atomic size with allows it to intercalate into anode or cathode materials more readily than cations of larger atomic size. Organo-lithium compounds are also widely used in synthesis and production of various organic compounds and polymers.
Thus, while lithium is useful in many applications, challenges still exist in recovering lithium from known sources. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace certain current lithium recovery techniques and methods.